After months of on-and-off leaks, a pipe over the James River was cut off from the sewer system and sealed Monday by the Richmond Department of Public Utilities.
The pipe is situated at a hotspot of river activity — and is the namesake of the city’s James River Park Pipeline Walkway, a popular access point to beaches and rapids.
In March, river guide and filmmaker Justin Black noticed a water leak from the pipe while on a raft training. He reported it to the James River Association — which then notified the city. Richmond officials said the pipe was closed off from upstream sewage and only carried stormwater at the time.
However, pressure from heavy rains in July overburdened the sewer system downstream of the pipe and seems to have backed sewage into it. The result: More leaking pollutants. Black took note of that, as well, on a rafting trip he led in early July.
“Right next to our rapid that we love swimming in, jumping off the rock, surfing in — now, all of a sudden, we’re looking at poop in the water,” Black said.
He called off the trip, took photos, and reported the leak to the city.
“It was disgusting, and it was also hard to explain to our customers what was going on,” Black said. “’Cause not only did we not fully understand what was going on, but it was unclear at that time — nobody was talking about it, we hadn’t been notified of anything.”
The Virginia Department of Health declared a health advisory on July 17, urging visitors to the river to avoid contact with the water. The advisory was lifted Aug. 1. VDH water readings detected safe levels of bacteria after Richmond DPU installed temporary flow-stopping measures, beginning with inflatable plugs in the pipe.
A photo Black posted on Instagram showed the next short-term fix — a metal plate affixed to the pipe with epoxy, held on for good measure by at least 20 packing straps. A smaller leak on the pipe was sealed in the same way.
Now, the leaking section of pipe is physically isolated from the wastewater system; workers cut and sealed it with metal plates at both ends. That work was completed as the dregs of Hurricane Debby reached Richmond. The pipeline walkway remains closed to the public.
An awning for workers, visible from the downstream access point to the pipe, was still in place Monday. It served to protect welders from rain and debris. Tom Dunlap, a riverkeeper with the James River Association, said CSX had been doing maintenance on the railways overhead, evidenced by railroad ties atop the awning.
Underneath the awning: A shiny, new weld, showing where the pipe was separated and sealed.
Black and Dunlap both said they’re glad the pipe is now sealed and acknowledged that the city is working on wide-ranging improvements to its combined sewer system that will reduce overflows and bacteria pollution.
But Black said it was discouraging to see the leak go unfixed until it became an urgent matter.
“When there’s a leaky pipe, and the solution is putting ratchet straps on it, that could have happened six months ago,” he said.
Dunlap said the episode raises questions about how the city will inform the public about leaks in the future.
Rhonda Johnson, spokesperson for Richmond DPU, said the city will continue raising awareness about its live-updating sewer overflow map.
The city maintains signage near sewer outfalls, explaining the dangers of swimming after moderate to heavy rains. It’s abandoned some other notification efforts, like automatic email alerts that were sent out to subscribers when an overflow occurred.
“We’re really hopeful that the city convenes stakeholders, like they’ve done … in the past to talk about the future of the pipeline, and public access to the beaches here,” Dunlap said.
Johnson said the city will hold an Aug. 20 meeting with a riverfront stakeholders group organized by Venture Richmond and has continued engaging with Dunlap in his role as riverkeeper.
RVA and CSO
Richmond has for years worked to address sewage overflows and its aging CSO infrastructure. Although the city was spared the worst of Debby’s rain, the storm still caused overflows at several outfalls, according to the CSO map. No overflows were reported following a light rain on Tuesday morning.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that sewage flows in 2024 had more than tripled 2023 numbers by June. Data for July is not yet available.
The state has required the city to make system upgrades in order to reduce bacteria releases, which are harmful to wildlife and humans. Mayor Levar Stoney acknowledged the challenge at a VPM event on Aug. 8.
“In Richmond, we have very old infrastructure, and we're doing everything we can to ensure that that infrastructure is fortified and stays in proper working condition to deliver the cleanest water possible to all the residents, and the residents beyond the city of Richmond,” Stoney said.
Stoney and other city officials have lobbied for an influx of state funding to tackle the projected $650 million needed to accomplish their bacteria-reduction goals.
That money has not flowed as freely as the water through the CSO.
“The commonwealth of Virginia has a goal for us. We want to meet that goal, but we cannot meet that goal without their investment,” Stoney told VPM News. “And so, we're going to continue to monitor our pipes that parallel the river or cross the river, and it's our hope — as we move forward — that we see an investment, a major investment, from our friends in the General Assembly.”
DPU’s Johnson also noted that the department has emergency funds to repair the pipeline walkway — and won’t dip into CSO project funds.
The city is working with an engineering firm to identify a long-term solution to return the pipe to service. Johnson said no timeline will be available on that work until a solution is agreed upon.
After posting that photo of the patched pipeline, Black said he got some feedback.
“One thing that I hear a lot is people saying, ‘I’ll never swim in the James River,’ and even in some ways judging people that do swim in the James,” he said. “But I wanna say as somebody who has paddled all 350 miles of the James River, [it’s] an absolutely beautiful and underrated river.”
Black said the pollution around Richmond and other populated areas along the James are just one part of the river’s story — and with more work, the river can become cleaner and more accessible.
“The James River is so much more than a leaky pipe, it’s so much more than a rapid that one week out of the year was stinky,” he said. “It’s already improved so much, so I think we should keep working to make it the best river it can be.”
The Richmond Department of Public Utilities is a VPM News sponsor.
